ECHOES
Interactive Soundwalks: Technology in Nature
Digital Sound Installation (2024 - )
“ECHOES” is an immersive audio project, an invitation to play and balance technology with our natural surroundings through a digital audio experience that is sound-mapped to the topography of a place.
With a software tool of the same name, ECHOES can be heard and experienced at specific physical GPS locations. Finding charm in experiences that invite audiences to directly affect their own “art viewing” experience, Andrea attempts to blur the roles of “art-maker” and “art-consumer” by designing audience-interactive elements. It is her hope that they can foster a greater shared empathy between people and the world around them.
Due to the interactive nature of the project, all accompanying albums below are but stereo archives of the experience. It does not include the living soundscape of the site itself, nor the interactive elements triggered by GPS. Experienced on-location, this sonic experience differs from person to person: the resultant recorded sounds and musical layers are impacted by the listener’s varying walking speeds, path choices, and facing direction.
Locations
// Kasahara Suite | S’ul-hween X’pey (Elder Cedar) Nature Reserve, Gabriola Island, BC (2024)
"ECHOES: Kasahara Suite" is an interactive sound walk designed to be experienced within the S’ul-hween X’pey (Elder Cedar) Nature Reserve on Gabriola Island, BC, Canada. Made up of recorded found sounds, instruments, and the sonic landscape around you.
It is impossible to work on a place-based audio project without recognizing the site that this work was created upon: the beachside house that once belonged to a fierce island arts and community lover, Toshiko Kasahara, and the lands on which it stands, that of the Snuneymuxw First Nations Coast Salish Peoples, known today as Gabriola Island.
Publicly presented as part of the Kasahara Gabriola Trust Artist Residency (April to May 2024), this free, augmented reality experience "Kasahara Suite" is the first interactive sound walk in Andrea Wong's "ECHOES" series. To experience this immersive sound walk as designed for within the S’ul-hween X’pey (Elder Cedar) Nature Reserve, please visit https://explore.echoes.xyz/collections/x7RtN8SVYOgZCwiG.
You will need to download the ECHOES App, as well as the Kasahara Suite sound walk prior to visiting this cedar forest as reception is too spotty to stream the soundwalk. A more detailed step-by-step can be found at the below How-To soon.
Press & In the Community
CBC: On the Island Radio Interview Feature
Gabriola Arts Council News
https://artsgabriola.ca/sound-performer-is-latest-kasahara-artist-in-residence/
Sounder News Article
https://soundernews.com/sound-performer-latest-kasahara-artist-in-residence/
Nanaimo Bulletin Article
Experience ECHOES: How-To
Coming soon...